


Sharing the Same Scars

by QueenNeehola



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, First Dates, First Kiss, M/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, References to The Empty Mask manga, Reunions, Spoilers, canon compliant but i gently reshape it like a playdough model for my own nefarious purposes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28479963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenNeehola/pseuds/QueenNeehola
Summary: Directly after the destruction of the Adephagos, Duke and Raven have a conversation on Tarqaron.Several months later, they meet again in Dahngrest, and have a little bit more than that.
Relationships: Duke Pantarei/Raven, Implied Past Elucifer/Duke Pantarei, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 19





	1. Back to Back

**Author's Note:**

> okay hear me out, i replayed tov and i just love raven so much and i also love duke a lot and i love deeply sad and traumatised old men finding peace and solace within one another and i am dying alone here

He had gotten used to it being the nine of them. The man who died alone and was reborn alone had somehow ended up with an entire family, and while it was strange at first, now he couldn’t imagine it being any other way. A princess, a bunch of paupers, and a dog. And him.

But even though he had grown used to their presence, Raven still found it disorientating to be part of a crowd. He’d played the part for years, had flirted with the notion of really belonging somewhere, but the empire had stopped feeling like home ten years ago and the guilds had always been a bit of a guilty pleasure, an escape. Now, with these people; with Karol vibrating with excitement and Rita not hitting him, for once; and Flynn still a bit red in the face from Yuri grabbing him and kissing him; and Patty in the middle of a victory speech no one could really make sense of; and the skies above them continuing to clear, purged of the Adephagos at last and glittering with countless spirits;

It was all a bit much, a bit overwhelming and intoxicating in equal amounts, and it took Raven too long to realise the tenth person was missing.

“Where’s Duke?”

No one seemed to hear him, too caught up in their celebrations. Or perhaps he hadn’t spoken aloud, conscious of bringing up the man who had almost killed them all. Even though Duke had helped in the end, they probably all wanted to forget about him now.

Raven had never been good at forgetting people.

A delicate hand touched his arm and he jumped. It was Judith. It was always Judith. Once upon a time Raven would have thought her unnerving and joked about Krityans having secret omniscience. Now, he was nothing but thankful as she silently, meaningfully, inclined her head towards the large staircase leading down from the top of Tarqaron.

“I give it about three minutes before they come after you,” she said, and held his gaze a beat longer. Her eyes were curious, searching, and Raven turned away before she found anything. She could still be a little unnerving when she wanted to.

“Thanks, Judith, darlin’. I’ll be quick.”

* * *

He found Duke halfway down the stairs.

There was no way Duke couldn’t hear his approach - Tarqaron was deathly silent at that level, and Raven was running full tilt. He had almost tripped more than once, and imagined feeling his heart thudding in momentary panic every time, though of course it didn’t. It never felt much of anything anymore, except strangely light.

“Duke!” But it took the call of his name and Raven overtaking and skidding to a halt in front of him, a step down and a head shorter for it, for Duke to stop. “Where are you going?”

“Tarqaron is unable to sustain itself much longer now,” Duke replied, like it was obvious. He regarded Raven with his usual passive expression. “It will fall. I’m leaving before that happens, and I suggest you all do the same.”

“Well, that’s—” Raven let out a little huff. Was Duke being dense, or deliberately difficult? “I meant from now on. Where’re you gonna go?”

That gave Duke pause, if only for a moment. He took an audible breath. Raven watched it enter and leave him. “I don’t know. I was prepared to die along with the rest of humanity today, and now I must keep living.”

Oh, well that was familiar.

“I lost all I cared for ten years ago, and my purpose since then is lost too.”

That, too.

“So I don’t have a specific direction in mind.”

Raven stayed silent, realising that he didn’t know what to say. He had never been good in these situations, not really, not beyond a smart quip or a lighthearted joke.

Now, he wasn’t even sure why he had followed Duke. To make sure he didn’t keel over, he supposed. But Duke was holding himself well, steadily, though he must have been just as injured and exhausted as everyone else up top, if not more so. He hid it well. Not like Raven, who wore every one of his years and mistakes like chains.

Raven settled on, “Well, you’re always welcome in Dahngrest, if ya ever feel like it.”

It might have been a trick of the flickering light, but Duke’s eyes seemed to widen for a second, his jaw losing some of its tension and his crafted composure fracturing.

In the next flash it was gone again, and Duke walked around Raven, passing onto the step below.

He did not turn as he said, “You are a strange man, Damuron Atomais.”

The name was an old one, but not a foreign one, and a heaviness that had nothing to do with blastia or metal casing settled into Raven’s chest. He shrugged, forcing it to roll off him. It was a little easier than it used to be, and it would probably get even easier from now on, too.

“Yeah, Damuron was a weirdo right till the end,” he agreed. “Schwann, too. But it doesn’t seem like ol’ Raven’s gonna be much different, by the looks of things.”

It was an odd feeling, rattling his identities off like reading down a list, but he had to get used to it. He wanted to. Schwann was not a secret anymore. Damuron wasn’t either, at least not to Duke.

Duke had known all three, though none of them particularly well.

Now that Raven was the only one left, maybe it was a chance for that to change.

“Well, wherever you go,” Raven continued, “make sure you find somethin’ to do with your life. I know how you hate apathetic folks.”

That did make Duke turn back, though only for a beat; a fleeting shared glance. 

In that moment, the scene seemed to change: the shower of spirits giving way to a shining cerulean sea stretching out in all directions, the salt breeze rushing through Ehmead Hill.

A memory. 

Duke had turned to him then too, backlit by the sun as he looked away from Elucifer’s grave, his head tilting and his hair falling away to tumble down his back. But the expression it uncovered this time was different: instead of the blank slate, the deep, haunted sadness that Raven had seen that day and that had coloured his view of Duke since, there seemed a new, uncharacteristic brightness to Duke's face. He wasn’t smiling, not quite, but Raven was struck with the epiphany that it might have been the closest he’d come to it in years.

And then, Raven blinked. By the time the split-second action had passed, Duke was descending the stairs again like the moment had never happened, and whatever face he might have been making was left to Raven’s imagination.

But he paused again a few steps further down and said, his voice a quiet rumble in the encompassing silence, “Perhaps I’ll see you in Dahngrest, one of these days.”

He lifted a hand without turning, maybe a wave, maybe just a signal that the conversation was now over, and set off again.

Raven just smiled and waved after him.

“Raven! _Raaaveeen_!” Raven almost fell down the stairs with the force of the shriek from above. Well, that was definitely Karol and his hefty lungs, proving Judith’s prediction right.

“Where the hell are you, old man?” And that was... _Rita_? With an obvious note of worry in her voice? Oh, it would be _fun_ to tease her about that later.

Raven’s smile widened. With a final glance at Duke’s steadily retreating form he turned, heaved a - mostly fake - sigh at the sight of all the steps, and began the climb to the top of Tarqaron again.


	2. Face to Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duke arrives in Dahngrest, intent on finding Raven, even if he's not really sure why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is mostly duke pov, but switches to raven pov right near the end :)

Duke could count the number of times he had been to Dahngrest on one hand. When he had been involved with the empire, the city had been all but off-limits, and even afterwards the ways of the guilds had never been of much interest to him. They were just another set of humans with another set of rules.

Still, for all his misgivings, Dahngrest was different than he vaguely remembered. For one, the sky was no longer a constant haze of twilit reds and oranges. The blue hue of late morning gave a different tone to the city altogether, brightening the shadowy streets and reflecting bright from the high windows of the buildings.

Knights strolled the streets too, conversing agreeably with locals where once the mere sight of them would have incited mass brawls.

Both of these were changes for the better, Duke could admit – a world closer to the one of unity he and Elucifer had both wanted.

Someone pushed past Duke, jostling him out of his reverie. They paused only to shoot him a dirty look over their shoulder before continuing on and melting into the crowds.

Not everything had changed.

Dahngrest was still full of…characters. Full of people in general. For being smaller than Zaphias, it felt ten times as stifling, but most populated places had that effect on Duke. He had always preferred where he could sit beneath clear skies and watch the stars; listen to the unfiltered sounds of the natural world around him.

So why, exactly, had he come to a place that was the complete opposite of that?

_“You’re always welcome in Dahngrest, if ya ever feel like it.”_

That was why.

Reluctant as he might be to admit it, Raven’s words had played on his mind since that day on Tarqaron. Raven himself had played on his mind, on an almost constant loop, revolving around Duke’s thoughts akin to the way he foolishly spun around the battlefield. (How unlike a knight to fight like that. But maybe that was the point.)

Duke didn’t like to say he had been thinking about Raven. He preferred to put it as…considering Raven. Contemplating Raven. Pondering on Raven, the man of many names, and how he had finally seemed to settle on one. How he should have been blatantly out of place amongst the idealistic youth he surrounded himself with, but he wasn’t. He slotted right alongside them like he was never meant to be anywhere else.

Duke, meanwhile, was all too aware he had never truly belonged anywhere. It had never bothered him while he had Elucifer. They had been two outcasts among their respective species, finding their way together.

But then he didn’t have Elucifer anymore, and he had started to see the outsider everyone else perceived.

Now, with the world reforming to fit its new laws of mana and spirits, and more and more people willingly putting aside their differences to help it along, that self-awareness gnawed itself a little further into his chest every day.

Maybe that was part of the reason he was here, too.

Not that he knew where to start.

Everything in Dahngrest looked the same: the same cobbled streets stretching in all directions, bordered on either side by the same rough stone buildings with the same tiled roof spires stretching into the sky.

Raven could be anywhere.

Raven could also be nowhere.

It had been months since Tarqaron. Raven was involved with the Brave Vesperia guild, though Duke didn’t know how deeply. Perhaps he did jobs for them. He could be out on one right now. He could be gone for days, or weeks. This could all be a futile effort of strange, selfish desire on Duke’s part.

He almost left. He almost turned and pushed his way back across the bridge and out of the city, but as he made to turn, another part of the conversation he had had with Raven all those months ago jumped neatly to the forefront of his thoughts:

_“Wherever you go, make sure you find somethin’ to do with your life. I know how you hate apathetic folks.”_

Apathy. Indifference. Listlessness.

Duke had indeed hated them, once upon a time. But at some point over the years, he had gotten good at feigning them, until he could barely fashion his face into an expression of anything but mild disinterest.

And Raven, who had once been on the receiving end of words exactly like those, had seen right through Duke and turned his own sentiment back on him.

Duke was damned well not going to back down from that.

He clenched his fist and marched on into Dahngrest with a renewed sense of purpose – even if that purpose was only to find Raven and figure things out from there. It was a start.

But that did not change the fact that he didn’t know where to look.

The clerk in Fortune’s Market sent him across to the inn, and the innkeeper directed him to the Guild Union HQ, where a stern woman with a guild crest sewn into her shirt collar barely looked up from her clipboard as she asked him if he had an appointment.

He replied, “I’m looking for someone.”

“I can give you a list of guilds who might be able to help you with that, but—”

“I believe he is a member of a guild,” Duke cut in. “His name is Raven.”

At that, the woman paused and – finally – looked at Duke properly. Her narrow eyes were quite obviously appraising him. What was also obvious was that she had recognised Raven’s name at once. As had the owners of the several other pairs of eyes who had suddenly turned to regard Duke.

The woman eventually said, “I haven’t seen him today yet. He might be off? I don’t think the others are in town right now, but…” She tapped the end of her pen to her lip for a moment. “I could ask Harry, but he’s got a bunch of meetings today, so it might be—”

At that moment, one of the people who had turned at the sound of Raven’s name – a rather large and overbearing individual wearing a hard hat – muscled in next to them. “I saw him at Fortune’s Market earlier, botherin’ the poor lass about banners or balloons or somethin’.”

Another, much younger eavesdropper popped up over the first’s shoulder, clutching a camera. “He went into the bistro just as I was comin’ out, ’bout a half hour ago.”

The woman nodded at both their comments and scribbled something down on the bottom corner of her collection of papers. She tore it off and pressed it into Duke’s hands. “You should try the Brave Vesperia HQ then. It isn’t too far from here, and if he’s been around town this morning, you’re likely to find him there at some point.”

Duke glanced down at what she had handed him: a rough and basic set of directions to his destination. At least he wouldn’t have to try and find it on his own. Small mercies.

“Happy to help,” the woman said, and when he looked back at her, her severe expression seemed to soften for a moment. But then it was gone, and so was she, turning away to deal with a rowdy group who had just arrived and were clamouring for an appointment with the head of some guild or other before Duke could think to offer any words of gratitude. The other people who had chimed in had dispersed too, and Duke found he couldn’t pick them out of the crowd in the foyer.

They had only been two of the number of people who had turned at the mention of a stranger saying Raven’s name. They were not familiar faces to Duke, so they couldn’t have been part of Yuri Lowell’s group, nor were they clad in imperial colours. From their dress, if they were guildfolk, they seemed to come from entirely different professions.

All in all, nothing marked them as reasonably being acquainted with Raven aside from Raven’s own startling ability to worm his way into associating with anyone, from anywhere, for any purpose.

It seemed that was indeed the case when, as Duke turned to leave, a previously uninvolved party with no obvious guild affiliation yelled over to him that, if and when he found Raven, he should tell him to go pay his tab at the tavern.

He knew it was ridiculous, given that the number of people he had spoken to was still in the single digits, but it was beginning to feel like everyone in Dahngrest knew Raven on some level.

More accurately, it felt like Duke was the only one who didn’t know him.

He was aware of his different names and faces, and vaguely of how he had come to wear them, but that was all. He didn’t know him to speak of him with any kind of familiarity, or the places he frequented, or anything about the guild he was part of.

What he did know, with a strange and sudden stubbornness, was that he _wanted_ to know.

* * *

Even with his crude map, Duke walked past the Brave Vesperia HQ three times before he recognised it as a small building nestled in between two larger ones, with an obviously handmade sign bearing the guild’s name stuck askew over the doorway.

It was…not exactly what he was expecting. As far as he knew, Brave Vesperia was still a small guild, doing small-time things – saving the world aside – but this level of simplicity was more than he had imagined.

He knocked at the door.

A minute passed, and no one answered.

He knocked again and the same happened.

He tried the handle, on the reasoning that if it was a guild building, there was a chance at least part of it would be open to the general public.

And it was. The door swung inwards easily for him to cross the threshold, and he let it fall shut again behind him as he took in Brave Vesperia’s interior.

It was quiet, and just as pitifully plain as the outside. A counter cut the back quarter of the room off, where a door marked ‘Private’ led into the other half of the building. To the left of that door, an old staircase led up to the second storey. On the public side of the counter, a few chairs were set up along the sides of the room around two long tables, presumably for guest purposes.

Aside from all that he had already catalogued, and a large leafy plant plonked awkwardly in one corner, the room was empty. The entire building seemed empty, and not just of interesting furnishings. There were no signs or sounds of life at all.

Duke called Raven’s name anyway. His voice rang in the air but again he received no answer. Just in case, he tried Yuri Lowell’s name too, but the silence persisted. No one was home.

Duke sighed and folded his arms, deliberating his next move. He could return to the Union HQ and ask for more assistance, but that didn’t appeal to him for several reasons. He could make his way back to the inn and book himself a room and try again tomorrow – that was probably the most sensible option.

He eyed the chairs one more time. …Or, he could sit and wait. He supposed he counted as a guest. It was almost serene here too, tucked away as the building was in a side street off the main thoroughfare, and he had been trekking all over town with no time to rest since he’d arrived. With the front door left unlocked, it surely meant that Raven – or whoever had been running the place – had just stepped out for a while. They would have to come back eventually, if only to lock up for the day. So he could wait until then, and use the peace to recharge and organise his thoughts in the meantime.

Duke had just settled on this idea when something on the far wall behind the counter caught his eye. He glanced up at it: a calendar and a small collage of photographs affixed to the wall. At that distance, it was impossible to pin down the exact subjects of the photos, but some recognisable hair colours and articles of clothing gave away that they were likely pictures of the members of Brave Vesperia and their affiliates.

Duke looked back at the door. It remained innocently closed. He listened again – still no sounds of movement. He was alone.

He was a little curious.

He was an acquaintance, of sorts.

It wouldn’t do any harm to have a closer look.

Silently, he slipped behind the counter.

The first thing that caught his attention was the calendar, for although it was a fairly plain thing featuring an artistic rendition of the Tolbyccian landscape and plenty of notes pertaining to guild affairs, like ‘Yuri in Zaphias,’ ‘Judith due back,’ and ‘ **Pay rent** ,’ one of the dates was circled in a bright colour and labelled with ‘BOSS’S BIRTHDAY!!’ Duke squinted at it, quietly wondering who the “boss” of Brave Vesperia was, and noting that their birthday was only two days away. Probably Yuri Lowell. He had always seemed like the leader of their little gang.

Next, he turned his attention to the photos. They were haphazardly taped to the wall, mostly crooked, and they did indeed primarily feature the members of Brave Vesperia and their friends.

In one, Yuri Lowell, the Krityan woman, the little boy and Raven stood in front of the guild building, arms around each other and smiling. In another, the princess had joined them inside and was making a face of enthusiastic awe at the dusty interior of the building along with their small mage companion, who looked markedly less impressed. There were a few pictures of the dog, some shots of the group in different areas around Dahngrest and Zaphias, an extreme close-up of the little girl with the pirate hat, and one particularly tasteless and blurry photo of Yuri Lowell shamelessly kissing the blond knight who had sometimes accompanied them.

All in all, it was a messy little collection of memories.

Duke touched a finger to one of the photos; it showed Raven carrying the small boy on his shoulders. Both of them were smiling brightly, flashing matching peace signs, but Duke’s gaze was drawn to Raven alone. His eyes were crinkled at the corners, his cheeks flushed and dimpled. Even in the still image, his whole body appeared animated. He looked…full of life. A far cry from the haunted shadow he had once seemed.

Duke began to feel warm and strange, and decided he had snooped long enough.

As he sat down in one of the chairs, folding one leg over the other, the strange feeling didn’t subside.

_Life_ , he thought. Raven had a life in Dahngrest. A life he had chosen. A life that could make him smile that genuinely.

A life that Duke was abruptly intruding into.

It was almost enough to make him get up and leave. He had never been one to act on impulse, and yet—turning up unannounced, expecting that Raven would be able to clear his schedule to welcome him, assuming that he would even _want_ to…

But Raven had invited him. …Hadn’t he? He had said as much, at least; that Duke would be welcome. His usual frivolities aside, it hadn’t sounded like a joke or a mere pleasantry, especially when he had chased Duke down Tarqaron just to extend the offer.

But it had taken months for Duke to take him up on it. How long had he really expected Raven to wait, and what was he even being made to wait for? What had he wanted out of inviting Duke to Dahngrest? What did Duke want out of it? Did he expect something to slot into place when he saw Raven? So far all he had felt was a growing restlessness—a nervousness, almost—at the prospect of seeing Raven again.

He shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. What did he have to be nervous about? He was almost forty. He thought he had grown out of such petty anxieties.

Perhaps he was just tired. It had been a long journey. All journeys were longer now, without Khroma to help him get around.

Duke tipped his head back against the wall and sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment to clear his thoughts, and printed on the back of his eyelids he saw Raven’s grinning face.

* * *

It was a normal day in Dahngrest. It was _better_ than a normal day in Dahngrest, by all accounts, because Raven had it to himself.

Not that he craved solitude – he’d had enough of loneliness and self-pity, thank you very much – but between being one of the poster boys for the newfound empire-guild camaraderie, information gathering and helping to hunt down corrupt officials for the prince, and trying to get enough jobs to keep Brave Vesperia afloat…he could use the peace.

Although he was still running around after people even now, he thought, adjusting the brimming shopping bag in his grip before the thin straps cut through his poor hand. He didn’t begrudge this errand, though: Karol’s birthday was coming up, and the kid had been bummed that no one bar Raven would be around for it. He was understanding, since everyone was busy, but he was also _twelve_. Or almost-thirteen, as he kept reminding anyone who would listen.

So Raven had spent the morning penning letters to their friends to try and find a time that worked for everyone to throw a proper party for the guild’s little boss, and in the meantime, he’d decided to spoil the kid a little by himself.

Damn bistro had near enough cleared him out for the cake ingredients. And he wasn’t looking forward to blowing up all the balloons with only his lung power. Maybe he could direct a little magic to help him along…

He was weighing up the morality of trying to summon the wind spirit herself to inflate a few party balloons as he stepped inside the Brave Vesperia HQ—and only the fleeting memory of the eggs in his bag stopped him dropping it completely as he registered the other presence that definitely hadn’t been there when he left.

Duke.

Duke Pantarei.

Duke Pantarei, who he hadn’t seen since Tarqaron.

Duke Pantarei, who was slumped in one of the silly little chairs Patty had bestowed upon them as a “guild-warming gift,” and who was most definitely _asleep_.


	3. Ain't so Far

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Raven now reunited with Duke, he has a great idea for what they can do to spend time together.  
> (It's not a date.)
> 
> (...Okay, it might be a date.)

Despite what people might say about him, Raven was a sensible man. He had successfully lived two lives for several years without being found out. He’d gone from a rich brat to a respected figure in the empire on – more or less – his own merits. And now, he was basically running a guild, because the person in charge was a pre-teen.

So Raven, being a sensible man, knew the sensible thing to do would be to wake Duke up, maybe make them both a coffee, and ask what the hell Duke was doing in Dahngrest—in the Brave Vesperia HQ— _asleep_. Once he’d established that, they could catch up.

However, Raven was also known for making some very bad decisions in his life, and the moment he had turned and laid eyes on Duke’s dozing form, his sensibilities had followed that pattern and made the bad decision to flee him completely. So had his movement, his breath, the not-beating of his not-heart – _everything_ had fled him except the ability to notice the slope of Duke’s throat as he sat with his head tipped back against the wall; the glittering white of his eyelashes pillowed on his cheeks; the even, slow rise and fall of his chest and the way his hands were clasped demurely in his lap.

Duke Pantarei was a beautiful man.

Raven berated himself for the thought instantly. Never mind that it was objectively _true_ , it wasn’t important. It wasn’t appropriate. And neither was staring holes into a sleeping man just because his lips were parted ever so slightly, almost invitingly—

“Damn it,” Raven muttered and turned away.

_Sensible_. He was a _sensible_ man. And a _sensible_ man would take a moment to compose himself. And maybe put the shopping away while he was at it.

* * *

It was…something he had thought about a lot since Tarqaron. Maybe even before Tarqaron, if he was going to be honest with himself for once.

Duke. Him and Duke. Duke and him.

When he’d first met Duke, Raven had been a bright-eyed young thing with friends and purpose and a potentially bright future. The second time he had been, as Duke had so tactfully put it then, a walking corpse.

But both those times, and every time their paths had crossed since then, Duke had remained what he had always been: a mystery. An enigmatic closed book of a man, if he was even a man at all – he had so easily denounced his humanity, and that had only added to the strange, unearthly melancholy he seemed to carry everywhere he went.

Of course, then Raven had learned that was because the empire had murdered his closest friend in cold blood, and it all made a lot more sense.

That sadness—that hatred—Raven could understand. Loss took its toll on a person.

Suddenly Duke had seemed a lot more human. A lot more vulnerable. A lot more lonely.

And Raven’s cold, mechanical blastia heart had begun to run with a fragile warmth he hadn’t felt in years.

* * *

He still wasn’t very composed by the time he came back from stuffing Karol’s party supplies into a random cupboard, but at least he wasn’t in danger of making a mess of flour and eggs all over the guild floor anymore.

* * *

“Duke? Duuuke. Wakey-wakey.”

Duke awoke after a few shakes of his shoulder. His eyes blinked slowly open, his back arching as he stretched and straightened himself upright again. He pushed some of his hair out of his face and looked up, blearily, at Raven.

_Rubies_ , was Raven’s first thought. Fresh cut rubies, set into porcelain, framed with carved ivory curls.

His second thought was, _shut up, old man_.

He said neither of these things. He did say, “People don’t usually invite themselves into an empty guild hall just ta take a nap, ya know.”

That woke Duke up a bit quicker, if the clarity that flickered across his face was any indication. His posture stiffened, his expression hardened, and Raven saw the exact moment he remembered where he was and what he had been doing.

“I…wasn’t,” Duke began, but his voice was still heavy and gruff with sleep, and so he just stood, clearing his throat. Already his mannerisms that Raven recognised were returning: his mouth fixing into something between neutrality and a frown, though his eyes flicking away to some random corner of the room betrayed his—hesitation? Embarrassment? “I was looking for you. I was told you’d be here, but when I found the building empty but unlocked I assumed you were running an errand so I decided to wait.”

“And you fell asleep? I wasn’t gone _that_ long.” Raven couldn’t help the teasing tone that slipped into his voice, nor the grin that slipped across his face. He’d never seen Duke ruffled before. He didn’t think the word even applied to the man, to be honest. It was charmingly normal.

Duke just sighed. “…It was a long journey.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet. Where’ve ya even been, anyway—”

A muted gurgling noise interrupted Raven. He glanced around the room in confusion: the sink definitely hadn’t been clogged (again) last he’d checked, and besides, it was in the other room so there was no way he could have heard it from—

Duke put a hand to his stomach as the sound came again, and sudden understanding struck Raven like a slap to the face. (And he’d had plenty of those, so he should know.)

“I’m sorry,” Duke muttered. He met Raven’s eyes at last, though his were hiding low under his lashes almost shyly. “Like I said, it was a long journey.”

Just then, an opportunity presented itself to Raven. A golden, shining opportunity that both mortified him to even consider and filled him with a silly, childlike excitement at the prospect.

And he decided to shove the mortification down and grab said opportunity with both hands before it slipped away.

“Food,” he blurted out and then, trying to refine his clumsy enthusiasm, “I mean, do ya wanna—we could—I, I know a place that does, uh, good lunches, if ya…”

Duke was just blinking at him, looking equal parts startled and suspicious at his sudden outburst. Not a great start.

Raven cleared his throat. Come on, champ, you can do it. “I mean, ya must be starvin’, right? Can’t let a guest of Brave Vesperia waste away on my watch! The boss would have my head! Ha ha ha!”

It was a pitiful attempt at a recovery, but it seemed to relax Duke somewhat. He was just fulfilling an obligation as a responsible guild member, yeah, that was it. Absolutely no ulterior motives. He wasn’t making it weird.

“I…don’t have much gald on hand,” Duke said. “The ferry was more expensive than I had anticipated.”

“I’ll pay! My treat!”

Okay, maybe he was making it weird. There was definitely something wrong with him. _I’ll pay_. With _what_? He had just spent almost everything he had on Karol’s birthday! And yet he’d offered like it was nothing. Was he really that desperate to keep Duke around now that he had him here in front of him?

“I…I suppose that’s fine, then,” Duke said.

Yeah. Yeah, he was.

He’d just have to hope he could extend his mile-long tab a bit further.

* * *

The closer they got to the tavern, the more Raven felt—no, the more he _knew_ he was being obvious. His stomach was in anxious, excited knots and his mouth was running like an overloaded blastia, babbling away about absolutely nothing, _this building_ and _that street_ and _Yuri did this_ and _Judith said that_.

It was embarrassing. He was embarrassing himself, but he couldn’t stop. He had a feeling that if he stopped yammering, everything else would grind to a halt too. Silence always gave Raven too much room to think, so with Duke as his conversation partner it was better that he filled as much space as possible with his worthless words, before the pretence that he wasn’t acting like a stupid teenager with a crush and this situation wasn’t exactly what it looked like shattered completely.

Duke hadn’t accused him of either thing so far, but he didn’t know if he was just being polite, or if he was really that dense. And he couldn’t exactly ask.

So Raven just kept going, pointing out people and places and listing off all the silly names he’d come up with for Dahngrest’s stray cat population. (It might have just been a trick of the light, for daylight in Dahngrest was still a novelty, but he could have sworn Duke’s eyes took on a glimmer at the mention of the animals.)

And Duke kept listening quietly to him, and together they walked through the streets.

* * *

They’d barely entered the tavern when an older woman wearing an apron emblazoned with the establishment’s name materialised in front of them. Or rather, in front of Raven – she didn’t pay Duke any good mind, and for good reason.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” she announced, her hands perched indignantly on her hips.

Raven groaned. He really hadn’t thought this one through. A dozen taverns in Dahngrest, and he’d chosen—

“Finally come to pay up for the past six months of free booze, have you?”

“Marie, darlin’, please—”

“And how much further do you think you can stretch the _I-used-ta-be-the-Don’s-right-hand-man_ schtick? Do you know how many times I’ve had to cover your—oh.” Marie’s voice faltered and faded as her eyes finally flicked away from Raven’s face to Duke standing next to him. Raven watched her quickly evaluate Duke in the way that she did all patrons and then, with mounting horror, he also watched her frown give way to a smile, and that smile give way to a bigger, more devious one. “Oh, you are punching way above your weight with this one.”

Raven made a noise like a dying peepit. “ _Marie_ —”

“Oh, honey, how did he lure _you_ in?” Marie was ignoring Raven altogether now and speaking directly to Duke. “I hope he didn’t fool you with his fancy talk. He’s alright, really, but if he gives you any trouble, you just let me or one of the other girls know. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to put him out on his rear, believe you me.”

Raven wheezed. This was how he was going to die, _again_ , and it was the most embarrassing way to go so far.

Duke tilted his head a fraction and replied, clearly and firmly, “I find Raven to be an admirable man. He has never caused me any trouble.”

Oh, never mind, _this_ was how Raven died a third time.

“I enjoy his company a great deal,” Duke added.

Raven couldn’t look at Duke. He couldn’t look at Marie. He couldn’t even _breathe_.

“Ah,” he heard Marie say. “Uh, sure. S-Sorry ’bout that. …Table for two, then?”

“Yes, please.”

Marie led them over to a small, empty table near the back of the room. Duke followed her, unperturbed, while Raven shuffled behind, about ready to just grab Duke’s arm and make a run for it before he could have his secret motivations made fun of any further. Not that they were likely to be secret anymore, with how they’d just been plainly laid out for Duke – and most of the tavern, probably – to hear.

He was about to sink into his seat with a defeated groan when Marie’s hand caught his sleeve and she jerked her chin, beckoning him closer. Stupidly, he complied.

When their heads were bent together, she said, her voice a low, deliberate murmur, “So you weren’t the one who did the luring this time, then. Nice one.”

Raven felt a flush light him up immediately. It seared even hotter when Marie left them and he found Duke staring right at him, the question in his gaze cutting right through to Raven’s core.

“S-She was just askin’ for our drinks orders!”

It was a blatant, pathetic lie, but as Raven sat and passed a hand over his red face, willing his breathing back to normal, Duke said nothing about it.

* * *

(It was at around the moment that Marie had asked him her question that Duke began to suspect what was going on.

And it was precisely when Raven had turned as crimson as the cheap rose decorating their table that those suspicions were all but confirmed.)

* * *

“S-Sorry about her,” Raven said when Marie had returned with their drinks – suspiciously quiet this time – and gone off again with their food order. “She’s, uh, worked here longer’n I’ve been around town. She gets the wrong idea sometimes. One time I came here with Judith and her eyes almost popped outta her—”

“The wrong idea?” Duke’s face was neutral as he sipped at his drink – _wine_ , she had brought them a bottle of _the most expensive wine_ – but his voice was curious. “I meant what I said. I do enjoy your company.”

“Oh,” Raven croaked.

“That’s why I came here.”

“R-Right.”

Duke said nothing more, and Raven’s eyes fell to his own glass. The liquid was a deep, pretty burgundy.

But Duke’s eyes were prettier, and he’d really rather be looking at them, and besides, this was _not_ how things were meant to be going, so Raven cleared his throat and mustered up his best fake composure.

This was just a nice catch-up between friends. That was all.

“So, you know what I’ve been up to, with the guild and all…” (Or more accurately, he hadn’t been able to stop himself word-vomiting every detail of his life for the past few months.) “But what about you? What’re you doin’ with yourself these days? You, uh, you been back to the capital, or…?”

Duke’s eyebrows furrowed a fraction, but quickly smoothed over again. Raven was surprised he’d even caught it.

“I…returned Dein Nomos, since I have no more need of it, but I didn’t linger any longer than that.”

“Thoughts on the new emperor?”

Duke took a contemplative sip of wine. “He’s different from the previous generation, which, I suppose, can only be a good thing. Although, he also reminds me a great deal of your friends, which I’m less sure about.”

Raven snorted. Was that a _joke_? By _Duke_? “Hey, he’s a good kid.”

“He has good people around to help him, so I’m sure he won’t make the mistakes of his predecessors.”

Duke’s ruby stare settled on Raven in a very deliberate way as he spoke, and Raven knew he hadn’t drunk enough to warrant the heat that crept up his neck.

Thankfully, that was when Marie returned with their food. Despite the glaringly obvious wink she shot Raven, he was happy for the moment to pass. He wasn’t quite ready to address Duke’s apparent compliment of him right now. Or ever. 

* * *

Maybe it was the food. More likely, it was the wine. There was a small possibility, even, of something else, some budding deeper connection, the fabled _sparks_ between them – whatever the cause, once the strangeness had passed it turned out Duke was a lot easier to hold a conversation with than Raven had anticipated.

Given Duke’s stoic nature, he had expected to contend with long stretches of silence broken only by his own stilted attempts at small talk, or to be struck down by another case of verbal diarrhoea and oversharing to compensate for the awkwardness, but neither of these things happened.

It started with Duke’s quietly surprised compliment on the quality of the food, which Raven seconded. Then Raven had offered his suggestions for what to order in the future, and neither of them commented on the implication of that. They’d refilled their glasses, and the conversation turned more personal and probing; and when Duke had asked more about Raven’s life, Raven indulged him, speaking of his open involvement with both the empire and the guilds and how busy but rewarding it was, seeing two parts of his life come together so cohesively (and seeing officials he’d never liked go down for corruption was always fun). 

Duke offered scraps of his own tale since they’d last seen one another: he’d been travelling, mostly, seeing the new laws of the world in action.

“And? What’d ya think?” Raven asked.

Duke chewed slowly and thoughtfully. Eventually, he said, “It isn’t bad. Though not everyone is willing to change the entire foundation of their life so easily.”

It was true – not everyone wanted to give up blastia. Not everyone _could_ , not completely. Raven included, for obvious reasons.

“But it’s a start,” Duke added, the words disappearing softly into his wine glass.

Raven caught them, and smiled into his own.

* * *

Duke ordered a dessert, which was surprising and hilarious – and endearing – in equal measure.

Raven did not, which seemed just as surprising to Duke if the way his eyes went bigger and rounder was any indication. (That was endearing, too.)

“What? I don’t like sweet things much,” Raven muttered, looking away. He felt heat prickle across his cheeks again.

Duke hummed, spooning a wad of fudge cake into his mouth. “I was going to offer you a bite.”

Raven, who had finished eating and was slowing down on the wine, choked on absolutely nothing.

* * *

Even after their plates were cleared and their drinks had been all but abandoned in favour of staying sober and not embarrassing themselves by saying something stupid (at least, in Raven’s case), the conversation continued to flow easily. It remained mostly a case of Raven telling stories about his days in Altosk or travelling with Yuri and the others, and Duke listening quietly while occasionally offering his thoughts, or asking the odd question.

Raven didn’t know how long they sat like that. With the warmth of food and booze lining his stomach and loosening his tongue, the comfortable background chatter of an afternoon tavern, and hints of Duke’s expression softening or posture slipping every now and again (that was probably down to the wine, too, but a man could dream), he could have stayed there all night, if only to see what other responses he could coax out of Duke.

Marie had other ideas.

“Alright, boys,” she announced, appearing at their table and making them both jump. Raven smacked his knee on the underside of the table and swore accordingly. “I got a five o’clock reservation for a big group and need this table, which means I need you to take your little date somewhere else.”

“Five o’clock?” Raven repeated, his eyes flicking to the large clock on the wall. It read four-thirty. _Four-thirty?_ It couldn’t have been later than two when they’d walked in. That couldn’t be right; they couldn’t have been there for that long—

It was at that moment the second part of what Marie had said reached Raven’s comprehension, and heat rocketed through him faster than that time Rita had set his coat-tails on fire for annoying her. He blustered to his feet, spluttering.

“L-Listen, Marie, it’s—”

“Let me guess,” she interrupted. “You want it put on your tab.”

Raven stopped suddenly. Marie was sporting a crafty grin. He risked a glance at Duke, who was looking at him inquisitively. He felt eyes of some of the other patrons on him, too.

He shrank back. “Yes, please, Marie, darlin’.”

* * *

They hovered outside the tavern for a really, really awkward amount of time. It was undeniable, how long they stood in uneasy silence with the safe excuse of lunching together stripped away from them.

Or at least, Raven felt uneasy about it. Duke didn’t seem all that bothered, though Raven was starting to come to expect that.

He kept stealing glances at Duke in his periphery. The man stood, tall and straight, his head tilted upwards, his eyes fixed on the dulling sky. It was late autumn now, fast approaching winter, and so the hours of Dahngrest’s precious daylight were rapidly waning. Fittingly, a chill was beginning to creep into Raven’s bones. Any other day, he’d be getting ready to shut up at home with a fire burning and at least six blankets, or thinking about spending the evening knocking back booze to stave off the cold.

But he didn’t really want to send Duke away. Even if he was to spend the night in the inn; even if they could meet up again the next day, or several days in a row, if luck was really on his side…some small – okay, big – selfish part of him wanted to keep Duke around as long as possible.

Damn, he really had it bad.

But what was he supposed to say? _Hey, wanna come help me blow up balloons for Karol’s birthday? How are you at baking?_ It was _ludicrous_.

“Raven?”

Raven dropped back to earth with a start to find Duke fixing that probing gaze on him again.

“Are you cold? Should we return to the guild?”

“Huh?” Raven suddenly became aware that he had automatically shoved his hands inside his sleeves and bunched his shoulders up. Damn old bones. He forced himself into a more relaxed posture which, ironically, just made him seem more tense. “What, no, I’m fine – I was just…thinkin’.”

Duke said nothing, but it was obvious he was waiting for him to elaborate. Raven scrambled for an answer that wasn’t about Duke, or Duke’s company, or Duke’s pretty face, or Duke’s long legs.

“Uh, I…” Scrambling for his next excuse, he cast his eyes around, then down, then up—and then the idea hit him. “You, uh, said you were travellin’ ta see the world, right?”

Duke nodded.

Raven grinned as the certainty that this was a good idea settled into his gut. He met Duke’s eyes with renewed vigour. “Then lemme show you the best view in Dahngrest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was supposed to be the final chapter, but it was getting in excess of 6k words so i decided to chop it in half! i think it works better this way as a little bit of a cliffhanger, hehe :>


	4. By Your Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven, as promised, takes Duke to see "the best view in Dahngrest." It goes well. Very well.

It was a bit of a walk. They wound between buildings and up steps, further and further into the network of mazes that made up Dahngrest’s back streets. Raven navigated them with practised ease and Duke matched his pace easily, not faltering even when the sun began to drop lower in the sky and cast the narrow lanes they took into deep, unnerving shadow.

Raven eventually paused behind a tall, flat-roofed building. He motioned to the wonky-looking set of steps affixed to the brick that had probably, at one point, functioned as an emergency escape route.

“We’re here.”

Now Duke had the sense to look sceptical. “ _We’re here?_ ”

“Yep. Gotta get up high ta appreciate the view.”

Raven started to climb, ignoring the creaking of the old metal beneath his boots.

“What are you— Do you own this building?” Duke asked, and Raven laughed at the incredulity in his voice.

“Pfft, nah. Leviathan’s Claw used ta use it as a warehouse of sorts, but it’s empty now. I helped clear it out, found these stairs up ta the roof, and the rest is history. Now c’mon!” He was a third of the way up by now, and paused to spin around and smirk down at Duke. He felt oddly light and brazen in a way that had until recently been nothing but an act. “Unless you’re afraid of heights?”

“Are you forgetting Tarqaron floated in the sky?” Duke answered, sighing – but he stepped hesitantly onto the stairs anyway.

* * *

Whatever doubt had been in Duke’s mind as he’d followed Raven up the steps – and then up the tiny, squeaking ladder the last few metres where they had stopped – vanished as soon as he stepped onto the roof and saw it.

Raven watched the penny drop. Duke’s expression didn’t just go blank – it went totally vacant and open, his eyes widening and his jaw going slack. He took a step forward, and then another, like he was being pulled, until he was across the roof and leaning against the safety railing, his hands curled tight around the old steel and his eyes fixed on –

– the sunset.

The real, natural sunset.

It licked across the tops of the buildings and burst through the gaps between them like spouts of fire, setting the river that ran through the city alight like oil. From their vantage point, the two of them could near enough see the whole of Dahngrest, and it was almost too bright to look at.

It was easier to look up; up to where the sky was hung with slowly descending pinks and purples; and even higher than that, where the Adephagos had once lurked, where night was now getting ready to fall. Dark blue inched around the furthest edges of the sky like a frame, and a few early stars were already beginning to show themselves. Brave Vesperia, as always, shone bright and unafraid at the centre of them all.

“Beautiful, ain’t it?” Raven asked, coming to rest against the railing.

Despite his words, he wasn’t looking at the sunset; but instead at Duke, who only gave a small, absent nod. Duke’s eyes were still fixed upwards, the mix of ambers and crimsons shining just as brightly in them as in the sun itself. His profile, lit in the hues of approaching dusk, was a sharply cut contrast against the softly falling waves of his fair hair. Duke had always seemed a cold figure, with all his paleness and frigid temperament, but in that moment…

He seemed warm.

Raven pulled his eyes away, into the sky, and heard himself start to speak.

“I used ta like that it was always dusk here. It felt like time wasn’t moving. Like as long as I was here, lookin’ up at the unchanging sky, I didn’t have to worry about what I was doin’ next, or where I was goin’, or who I was s’posed to be. I could just forget about all of it, just for a little while. ’Course, that’s not how things work, but it was nice to pretend. ’Cause change…that’s scary. Movin’ on is _terrifying_. I wanted to just…stand still.

“But now…well, it’s still scary, I’m not gonna lie. I still have next to no idea what I’m doin’. That much hasn’t changed. But I find that I don’t mind it so much anymore. Hell, I even kinda look forward to what each new day brings me. Sometimes I even wake up early just to watch the sun come up, and I come up here a lot to watch it go down again. It’s silly, but it feels…symbolic, y’know? Like time isn’t frozen here anymore, and neither am I. Like I can move again. Plus, it’s just nice ta look at.”

Duke hummed in perceived agreement, but said nothing. Still, somehow, Raven didn’t feel overwhelmingly stupid for spilling all his feelings out like that. It had been nice to share. It had felt right to share.

* * *

They weren’t the only people watching the sunset: in the buildings around them, people were on their own roofs or hanging out of upper-storey windows, and Raven could even see distant groups gathering on the bridges in and out of the city. Since things had changed – since he’d come back for good – he’d noticed this happened daily, that the locals tended to gather to watch the changing colours of the sky at sunrise and sundown. The novelty clearly hadn’t worn off quite yet.

But even with so many people outdoors, there seemed to be a blanket of tranquillity that fell across Dahngrest at those two specific times of day. With a city that was always a hive of activity, rowdiness and action; where even in the dead of night there would be drunks singing, dogs howling, and the carried sound of laughter and disputes alike, such sudden quiet should have felt unnerving.

But it wasn’t. Dahngrest was a city that had been built up around its people, and though the unruliness might pause, that solidarity, that feeling of coming together for a common purpose remained.

Dahngrest was Raven’s home. It was home to so many: those who had chosen it, those who had no choice but to settle there, and those, like Karol, who had never known anywhere else. No matter their backgrounds, where they had been before or where they might go in the future, they called this city home, and they were watching the sunset now, just as Raven was.

Just as Duke was.

“I always thought the world was beautiful,” Duke said. His voice was barely a soft rumble, as though he was just talking to himself, but Raven felt sure the words were for him. “So much richness, so much variety. The humans, the Krityans, the Entelexeia, even the monsters, animals and plants. Everything was so unique but coexisted in such perfect harmony. I was awed by it.

“When the war broke out, I was afraid the world I loved would be broken beyond repair. But I was hopeful, too. Elucifer made me hopeful that we could take it back, nurture it, and make it better than ever before. All of us – if only we worked together. If only we all focused on what we had in common, rather than our differences. …And then I lost him, and I lost that hope. The world held no beauty for me after that. All I could see was its ugliness. Its people’s endless conflicts. It made me bitter. It made me more afraid, too. Afraid that the world Elucifer and I had hoped to maintain was lost forever.

“Change _is_ scary. Moving on _is_ terrifying. And I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t see a way forward; only a way back. And I almost succeeded in making it happen, until all of you stopped me.”

Raven offered a sheepish chuckle in response. “Yeah, I’d say sorry about that, but…you know.”

“I’m glad you stopped me,” Duke admitted. “I was foolish and lost. …I am still lost. Much like you, I have no idea what comes next. I have seen how the world has changed, and how it continues to change more every day. But difficult though it may be, I’m glad I’m here to see it. And perhaps I’ll change, too.”

He fell silent. Raven gave him a moment, watching in his periphery in case Duke had something else to say, but it looked like he had finally finished speaking his piece. His eyes, still shimmering ruby in the face of the setting sun, stayed fixed on the sky.

Raven followed his gaze back up. “I think you have changed.”

“…Maybe.”

“You have. I don’t think you woulda said any of that before. But either way, I’m glad you’re here, too.”

The horrifying honesty of his admission hit Raven a little too late and he froze. His eyes slid across to Duke again, but he hadn’t reacted. He hadn’t even moved. He looked so focused, his gaze intent on the drapery of colours twisting their way further across the sky.

Raven thanked whatever spirit was surely looking out for him.

“It really is beautiful,” Duke remarked. This time, he was almost certainly mumbling to himself.

Raven, a true idiot, answered anyway. “Yeah. Sure is.”

A new, comfortable stretch of silence passed between them. The sun continued to sink lower behind the buildings until it was almost out of sight, just a few tendrils of light streaking upwards from the horizon. The purple sky was dimming and the frame of indigo was bleeding inwards like spilled ink. More of Brave Vesperia’s celestial siblings were popping into focus every second, and the cold, pale crescent of the moon was fighting hard to join them.

“Raven,” Duke said.

“Mm?”

“Was this a date?”

Raven suddenly snapped to attention. The sky, the moon, the stars; everything above was instantly forgotten to him as he sprang away from the railings like they had burned him, his shaky stare settling on Duke’s immovable form. “A date—whaddaya—Duke, _what_ —”

Duke had finally torn himself away from the sunset too. He was looking right at Raven, back to wearing that same, passive, unreadable expression as always—almost. There was something else in there too now, something that Raven, in all his panic, couldn’t put a name to.

Whatever it was, it didn’t show in his voice. Coolly, he listed off, “Inviting me to Dahngrest. Taking me for lunch, which you footed the bill for. Bringing me here, to a secluded area, to watch the sun going down, just the two of us. Traditionally, they would all be construed as romantic actions. It almost seems like you’re trying to court me.”

Raven, on the other hand, was anything but cool as he spluttered, “C- _Court!?_ Don’t say it like that, I wasn’t—I mean— _courting_ is—”

“Why not? We both hail from noble houses. Had our lives gone another direction, I don’t doubt that’s exactly what people would call it.”

Duke turned away to lean lightly against the railing again like he hadn’t just destroyed the entirety of Raven’s pride.

Raven, feeling head-to-toe scalding, couldn’t do much but copy him, deflating against the metal bars with a sigh.

“Well, don’t go sayin’ that where people can hear it,” he grumbled, leaning an elbow on the railing and pillowing his chin in his palm. “Far as anyone around here knows, I’m just common blood like the rest of ’em. Besides…neither of us has a noble house to go back to anymore, do we?”

“I suppose you’re right,” Duke relented. When Raven hazarded a glance his way, he had gone back to watching the sky again, as though the past minute had never happened.

He said nothing more on the subject of courtship or Raven’s intentions. The quiet settled over them again, but at least to Raven, it felt far less comfortable this time.

Raven fidgeted, but he didn’t say anything either. How could he? How was he supposed to explain that, yeah, _maybe_ their afternoon could have been a date, but it could also have just been two old friends catching up, but if Duke _wanted_ to see it as a date then that was fine, and if he _didn’t_ , that was…also fine, he guessed. Whatever.

“So,” Duke began, when the sun finally vanished behind the building in front of them, “it wasn’t a date, then?”

_Damn it_. Raven had just gotten the colour of his face under control, and now here he went again, erupting into scarlet as he fumbled over his words. “I—well, I mean—not as such, I mean, I guess you could maybe—"

Duke’s hand settled on Raven’s arm, and Raven automatically turned to him.

The only thing he had time to process was Duke’s intense, dark stare before he was kissing him. Or rather, before he was being kissed by him, because for all his years of bragging and bravado, Raven went completely still at the touch.

In a sudden, private, completely stupid thought, he was glad he didn’t have a normal heart anymore, because if there was one thing that would have made it leap fully out of his chest and off the side of the building, it was being kissed by Duke Pantarei.

Even as things stood, he was sure he felt his blastia give a strange little buzz. Or maybe it was all in his head. There was a lot going on in his head at the moment. It seemed to be the only part of him that was working.

And then Duke pulled away, and Raven’s body remembered how to move. He clapped a hand over his mouth, though he wasn’t sure if it was in shock, or to prevent Duke kissing him again. (Why would that be his first instinct? Would Duke even try to kiss him again? Why had he kissed him in the first place? And _why_ would Raven now try to stop it happening a second time, when it had been so—)

“I’m sorry,” Duke said, and that was enough to get Raven to pull himself together.

He dropped his hand. “What—why?”

Duke had cast his face and eyes downward, his expression obscured as his hair fell over it like a curtain. Raven had an inexplicable urge to gently sweep it aside.

“That was…impulsive of me,” Duke said quietly.

Raven didn’t know what to say to that. It was too soft, too honest. It was… _unbearably cute_. A few smart retorts line themselves up on Raven’s tongue, but he bit them away. Now wasn’t the time.

Now was the time for a bit of impulsiveness of his own.

He reached out, following through with his fantasy of tucking Duke’s hair away behind his ear. Duke’s eyes skimmed across his face as he did so, and their wide and open disbelief struck Raven. He’d known Duke was capable of making other expressions outside of his default, had even seen hints of a few throughout the day—but this was something else altogether. And Raven was the cause of it.

That gave him enough scraps of confidence to do what he did next.

“Spontaneity looks good on ya,” he said, and cupped Duke’s face, and kissed him again.

This time Duke was the one to go still, though after a moment he relaxed into it, and Raven took this as a sign to tilt his head slightly to better fit their mouths together. Duke went willingly, his lips parting slightly, his hands finding Raven’s face and cradling it, almost drawing Raven up further against him, closer, to kiss him more deeply.

Raven was just weighing up the pros and cons of putting his tongue in Duke’s mouth now, or waiting to see if he got more chances to in the future, when—

Duke pulled away again.

Raven blinked. He felt dazed. His fingers felt tingly, and his vision was all soft around the edges, or maybe that was just Duke, glowing faint and spirit-like in the encroaching darkness, _beautiful_ –

“Should we go somewhere else?” Duke asked, and, _oh_.

Was that…an _invitation?_ A very specific _type_ of invitation? Was Duke really asking to—

Raven flushed. Duke’s eyebrow quirked in a silent question, but after a moment what he’d said seemed to sink in, and it looked to Raven like he turned a little bit pink, too (but maybe it was just the last of the sunset clinging to his pale skin).

“I just meant— You…you _are_ cold,” he amended, suddenly looking anywhere but at Raven. “Your hand, when you touched me…and your face…and it’s getting colder now, so I thought that perhaps we should retire somewhere warmer. That’s all.”

Oh. Oh, right. Yeah, now that Duke mentioned it, it was starting to dip into temperatures Raven found uncomfortable. That explained the tingling extremities.

“Should we return to the guild?” Duke asked.

It was apparently not yet cold enough for Raven’s motormouth to have frozen over, because he blurted out, “I live close by, actually, so we could—we could…go back ta mine? If ya want.”

He didn’t miss the way’s Duke’s eyes were suddenly focused on him again, wide in plain and sudden shock. It would have been almost comical, had Raven not suddenly wanted to throw himself off the roof. Great, now he was the one sounding like he was making propositions.

“I’m not—S-Sorry, I didn’t mean it like—”

“I never thought you did,” Duke cut in quickly. He definitely looked a little redder in the face now. “I trust you have a fireplace?”

Raven nodded, hastily adding, “And coffee! We can…we can have coffee. Warm us up.”

Duke nodded too, affirming the idea. Then, he strode past Raven and across the roof, and swung onto the little ladder again without another word. It squeaked menacingly, but he didn’t seem to care. Just before he disappeared over the side of the roof, he glanced up and met Raven’s eyes.

“Let’s go, then,” he said, and then he was gone.

“Right,” Raven agreed, and scurried after him.

He felt stupid. He felt like an idiot, a moron, a clumsy oaf, a complete jackass, and every other unkind word anyone had ever called him.

But he had just kissed Duke Pantarei, _twice_ , and had succeeded in inviting him back to his home, so really, he probably deserved a little stupidity to balance things out before his head got too big.

* * *

Once they reached the ground again, they fell into quiet step together, much like they had on the way out to the building. Like then, too, Duke stuck close to Raven – but they didn’t link arms, or hold hands, or anything like that. They barely even spoke, the lingering embarrassment and hesitation of this new— _thing_ between them hanging over them. But when they passed through a narrow alley and had to stand aside to let a couple pass the other way, Duke pressed a little too close to Raven, and maybe it was just politeness but Raven was inclined to think otherwise. Especially when Duke stayed close enough for their arms to brush for the remainder of the walk.

It was probably something Raven would have to figure out by himself. There were probably a lot of things he would have to figure out by himself, if they were to continue in this direction. Duke wasn’t the most forthcoming. What he’d said – and done – today was probably the most open he’d been in years, and Raven wasn’t sure how much more he could expect from him, if anything. But, well—

“It’s nicer here than I remember,” Duke said, glancing around at the buildings with their windows glowing gently in the evening dim as Raven fumbled with cold fingers for his keys. “Maybe I’ll stay in town for a while.”

Raven promptly dropped his keys.

As he straightened back up from retrieving them, he risked a peek at Duke. If he had to pick a name for the expression on Duke’s face just then, he would have called it a smile. Or as close as Duke could get to smiling.

He was sure he’d figure that out, too. It seemed he was going to have time, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone who read this fic to the end, and left kudos and comments! it warms my heart to find out that there are other people besides me who enjoy this rarepair!

**Author's Note:**

> [ find me on twitter!](http://www.twitter.com/QueenNeehola)


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